DIY Dr. Seuss Inspired Reading Chart

What’s more appropriate for a kindergartner learning to read than a Dr. Seuss inspired reading chart?! Big Brother has been making such great improvements in Kindergarten this year! I’m thrilled to say that we have a little beginning reader on our hands. He has been doing especially great in just the last couple of weeks. In fact, he is now bringing home beginning reader books to read on his own. So, I wanted to make him a fun reading chart to help keep encouraging him to be excited about reading on his own. I LOVE the way it turned out! And, even more importantly, Big Brother loves it! He was so excited to mark off two books just after I finished the project!

The whole theme of the project was inspired from one of my favorite Dr. Seuss quotes:

The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.

It’s perfect! So, with that in mind, I set out to make a chart. I wanted something that would last for some time, but that we could use over and over. So, the chart is made on an individual student white board (left over from my teaching days).

Here’s how I made it:

The white board is just slightly larger than an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper. So, I started by sketching out a design on a piece of copy paper, sort of like a game board. I then free-handed that design using a Sharpie paint pen on to the white board. Then, I wrote the quote on. Using a combination of the Sharpie paint pens and Elmer’s Painters, I then free-handed some Dr. Seuss inspired signs & truffula trees on. Plus, I glued on (just using a glue stick) some images that I cut out from a couple of book marks we had. To help protect the pieces I glued on, I added a coat of Mod Podge over them. The last step was just setting up a way to hang it. So, we drilled two holes (11/64th” drill bit) at the top of the white board. Then, I just laced a ribbon through, tying knots at each end on the back. I love all the cute Seuss-inspired details! If you’re not feeling as artsy or don’t want to spend them time free-handing all your images, then you could certainly go the Mod Podge route with more cut out characters all over the chart. Sometimes you can find old, beat-up copies of Dr. Seuss classics for super cheap at the thrift store. So, do that and cut up the book pages for the project even! What’s great about a Seuss-inspired project like this is that you can have fun with all the colors, shapes, and characters! Big Brother has already decided that he wants to write a number in to check off the books he reads and when he gets to the truffula trees he gets a prize! 😉 I love that we can just use a dry erase marker…and hopefully fill out his chart again & again!

Interested in more Seuss-inspired activities & crafts? Here are a few fun ideas that some of my blogging friends are showing off today as well:

What is YOUR favorite Dr. Seuss book?

Linked to: *Skip to My Lou, *Dr. Seuss Virtual Book Club Hop, *Home Stories A to Z, *Flamingo Toes, *I Can Teach My Child